Until recently, Ludwig Martial Arts – the academy operated by UFC veteran and renowned MMA coach Duane Ludwig – was a fairly exclusive club. That is no longer the case. The gifted instructor has now opened his doors to all fighters, and is hoping they’ll come from far and wide to learn what he has to teach.
On the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, Coach Duane Ludwig (who is credited in large part for TJ Dillashaw’s evolution into a championship-level fighter) explained the choice to open his academy’s doors to all fighters.
“I know too much not to teach,” he said. “It allows me to grow more as a martial arts instructor, and as a man, as a father. I cross paths with a lot of people and a lot of fighters, and they don’t even have the basics down. I’m like ‘damn, man, you haven’t been taught this or this.’ I show them little tricks or adjustments and it’s just mind blowing, like man, this is basic stuff. So, I need to [open my doors]. I feel obligated. But I love it, that’s my passion. That’s why I’m on this earth; to teach martial arts, and to all levels. This is what I’ve dedicated my life to, to teaching the martial arts. I can teach very basic, unathletic people to get in shape and how to throw punches and how to self defend, and obviously its been proven I can train athletes at the very highest level too. So that’s my gift, and I have to do it.”
“You’ve got to find your gift in life and then share it.”
Ludwig then explained what led to the decision to open the doors of his academy:
“I thought about it ever since ever since I left Sacramento, like which structure am I going to go with?” he said. “I did a lot of research. I spoke to Mr. Greg Jackson recently, I spoke to Bob Cook, I spoke with a lot of top trainers to see how they do things. It’s nice to have open doors for information with all these people, just to bounce ideas off of. They gave me some excellent pointers on how to do things quickly. I feel like I have a really good business model. Obviously I have the correct information to teach the athletes to become better, it’s just making sure I’m doing so in the correct way that I can have the doors open for everyone, so they can be there and it can be open and my academy won’t close and there won’t be any stress on anybody.”
With his doors now open, Ludwig has a message for any fighters interested in improving their skills:
“If you want to get better, come on in.”
Which pro fighters do you think would benefit most from the expert instruction of Duane Ludwig?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/13/2017.